How Did You Know What You Wanted a Degree In?

[Ohrenberg]

Hi there! Long time lurker, but haven't done much in the way of my degree. I am so lost. My dream job is to be a writer. I write for a couple sites after work, but just a small amount of articles that don’t amount to much. My thought process, as horrible as it is, is that if I don’t have a degree in something [legitimate], that I’m a careerless loser. I know this is odd and bad thinking, but I can’t help but feel this way. My other siblings have college degrees and I feel like I’m the “failure” of the group because I haven’t gotten mine yet.

I need a degree, but I am absolutely clueless as to what I want. Right now I work in an office doing regular office things, and the cubicle life is not for me. Just the thought of putting on a suit and sitting in a cubicle my whole life makes me cringe so hard I get goosebumps. I also don’t want an English degree because I feel like that’s a waste of money.

I guess my question is: How did you know what you wanted to do? Did you fall into something and get a degree because of that or did you follow you passion? Did you settle? Did you get your degree in what you thought would make a good living? Basically, what motivates your choices?

There are several other things I want to do but are my “second choice”. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test and have tried looking at careers for my personality type (writer being the big one recommended), but none of the others interest me. Maybe I’m hopeless, I don’t know. I just wanted to see what everybody else has done.

[sanantone]

I always say that most people can find a way to make their interests marketable. For those who like writing, I recommend technical writing. You could get a degree in humanities, journalism, or English and take STEM courses as free electives to make yourself valuable in this field. If someone is willing to work in a rural or inner-city school that has trouble recruiting teachers, then an English degree with a teaching certification can land you a job. There are also a lot of openings for special education and foreign language teachers. If you're willing to become fluent in a foreign language, there are shortages of translators for certain languages. I heard there is also a shortage of sign language interpreters.

[Getiton1]

Hi Ohrenburg,

Okay, you already know you like writing. That's half the problem gone. Lot's of people don't even know what they want to do at all when they grow up. So sit down and give yourself a little credit for knowing what you LIKE and what you don't like. Next thing would be to get some honest opinions about if your writing is good and where your writing could lead to an income producing job. If you get feedback from previous teachers or critics that you were a good creative writer then HELLO, there is a whole entire web of places to write, some of which will pay you to write. For example, travel writing. You write up the ads or the background for places to travel to. How about food write ups? Wine write ups, Gym write ups, you get the idea. Now that anyone and everyone can write about their feelings/ratings about a place, there is greater competition, but to stand out you will need to polish your regular skills and work on new skills to help you stand out. Any of the degrees that Sanantone said were great options. I have to disagree with you that an English Major is useless. Have you seen the way people write today? Typo's galore! Poor subject agreement, misused punctuation, etc. It's not hard to be a decent writer, but to be an exceptional writer takes knowledge, practice and skill. These take time to develop. Human Resource managers tend to like English Majors because they can count on your background to send out e-mails, memos and even draft working documents without having to worry that you will make the company or department look bad by making a silly typo. I my job, I am a nurse, but I do a lot of writing. I am by no means perfect, but I have to take a slew of medical information and using my medical background and writing skills put everything that the FDA wants to know about into a complete, but neat little written summary. I work in clinical, but I have 3 close friends that were not nurses that went into management because they used their degrees in English (2 of the friends) and Psych (1 friend) worked well with the reports they were expected to write up. So I can tell you that I think you might have to think outside of the box before you conclude that and English Major is useless.

Sanatone mentioned teaching as a possible career choice. I think that was a great suggestion. It's hard to find a teaching job now, but if you really don't want the cubicle life, you might have to consider moving (after you finish school) to areas where cubicle employers are not the only option out there. Teaching is not cubicle life. Your students change, your semesters change, your goals change. You will likely have summers off, and have lots of breaks to work on your personal writing. Having an English Degree is not useless, and I would check into the other degree Sanantone mentioned as well.

So...you are not hopeless. There are still lots of options So please stop feeling sorry for yourself and tap into your God given talents. Every person is unique and has their own talents waiting to be developed. It's your choice to muscle up and get the job done or sit still while time goes on. I think there is a saying that goes something like, "Time waits for no man". It's true. Time will pass and your degree won't be any closer if you don't keep moving on your classes. Now, if you are still not sure what classes to take while you decide, I bet you can see a trend on here by looking at the signatures of people that went onto different degrees. We all pretty much have to take English Comp 1 and often 2, Math, History 1, 2 and often Government, a Humanities class and/or a foreign language. I think you already know you like writing. If you haven't taken Humanities yet, I would study for/get that one out of the way. Taking and passing a CLEP like that should be easy for you with your love of writing (and I assume reading)? So, dust yourself off, and GET IT ON!

Best of luck : )
-T

Hi there! Long time lurker, but haven't done much in the way of my degree. I am so lost. My dream job is to be a writer. I write for a couple sites after work, but just a small amount of articles that don’t amount to much. My thought process, as horrible as it is, is that if I don’t have a degree in something [legitimate], that I’m a careerless loser. I know this is odd and bad thinking, but I can’t help but feel this way. My other siblings have college degrees and I feel like I’m the “failure” of the group because I haven’t gotten mine yet.

I need a degree, but I am absolutely clueless as to what I want. Right now I work in an office doing regular office things, and the cubicle life is not for me. Just the thought of putting on a suit and sitting in a cubicle my whole life makes me cringe so hard I get goosebumps. I also don’t want an English degree because I feel like that’s a waste of money.

I guess my question is: How did you know what you wanted to do? Did you fall into something and get a degree because of that or did you follow you passion? Did you settle? Did you get your degree in what you thought would make a good living? Basically, what motivates your choices?

There are several other things I want to do but are my “second choice”. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test and have tried looking at careers for my personality type (writer being the big one recommended), but none of the others interest me. Maybe I’m hopeless, I don’t know. I just wanted to see what everybody else has done.

[sanantone]

I should mention that you can also do things the other way around for technical writing. You can get a degree in a technical field of secondary interest (if you have one) and take writing courses as free/general education electives. Public relations, editing, and advertising are other fields you should look into.

[UptonSinclair]

What do you write about? Is your writing the passion or does your passion revolve around the subject matter? When I chose a degree, I did so based on this question. What do I do when I have free time? For me the logical response was computers. I have a wife who is artistic. She has to draw, paint, sculpt, etc. For her, a humanities degree is the obvious choice.

I laughed when I read that putting on a suit and working in a cubicle gives you goosebumps. I have been an electrician for over 20 years and sitting in a cubicle is pretty close to my dream job.